I haven't been out today so here is another capture from my walk around St. Mary's Churchyard in Painswick up in the Cotswolds. This is the wonderful entrance towards the church and is known as a lychgate.
Many churches have a lychgates built over the main entrance to the enclosed area round the church. The name is from the Anglo Saxon 'lich' meaning corpse. The gate marks the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, and is where the bearers sheltered with the coffin, waiting for the clergyman to lead the procession before the burial. The original lychgates had seats, a lych cross and a lych stone - a slab on which the coffin rested.
This looks very old but was only built in 1901, saying that all the wood is hundreds of years old and comes from the belfry of the 1480 church. In the 1880 the spire was struck by lightening and had to be rebuilt, they replaced all the bell supports with steel and this was built from the wood taken out.
On the front is printed the music notes and words:
Rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say Rejoice.
